basketball

For the first time in four years, women’s college basketball has a new top team, and it wears garnet and black. The South Carolina women’s basketball team is the new national champion, winning a national title for the first time in program history.

The Gamecocks beat Mississippi State 67-55 in Dallas on Sunday afternoon, completing the run through the postseason all the way to the crown in Dawn Staley’s ninth season.

South Carolina made the run without senior center Alaina Coates, who missed the NCAA Tournament with an ankle injury. But what the Gamecocks had was more than enough — and all of it is expected back next season.

Junior forward A’ja Wilson led the Gamecocks with 23 points, while Allisha Gray — the star against Stanford on Friday in the Final Four — again came up huge for South Carolina with 18 points.

When the moment mattered most, it was the pair of Wilson and Gray that proved to be the difference as the duo hit back-to-back hoops after the Bulldogs cut the lead to 4 in the fourth quarter.

In the third meeting between the two teams this season, South Carolina jumped out to a lead late in the first quarter with a 6-0 run. The Gamecocks would never trail again, but the evening wasn’t without its tense moments.

Mississippi State had a huge third-quarter push left in the tank, started by three straight points from star Victoria Vivians. The Bulldogs rattled off a 9-0 run to cut South Carolina’s lead from 14 down to 5 late in the third quarter, but USC had the answer it needed to live through the run.

Wilson made a short jumper and Kaela Davis capped the third quarter with a buzzer-beating jumper to extend the lead back to 8, but the Bulldogs had another run left.

MSU scored four straight to cut the lead down to 4 with 6:52 to play. Wilson had the necessary answer again, swatting away an MSU shot and getting a good bounce on a short jumper to send South Carolina to a 6-point advantage. Then it was Gray with a jumper to lift the Gamecocks back to safety and off with the national title.

And it came close after it looked like all was lost. The Gamecocks made a frantic second-half comeback, as they have so many times in the postseason. But it was not enough, as the No. 1-seeded Zags had too much in the end. The Gamecocks’ historic run halted Saturday afternoon in Arizona with a 77-73 heartbreaker at the hands of fellow first-time Final Four participant Gonzaga.

South Carolina rattled off a 16-0 run in the second half to take a 67-65 lead with 7:05 to play, but a Zach Collins 3-pointer and back-to-back Przemek Karnowski hoops flipped the game back for the Zags after the Gamecocks has seized control after missing it for the first 33 minutes of the game.

South Carolina kept it close down to the final seconds, but could not get a crucial hoop in the final 1:45 of the game when it was down one possession throughout. Gonzaga fouled Sindarius Thornwell with 3.5 seconds left. The senior made the first but missed the second and Gonzaga grabbed the rebound up two with 2.2 seconds left.

Gonzaga’s Killian Tillie made a pair of free throws, ending the Gamecocks’ season.

Gonzaga came out of the locker room cruising in the first half, hitting 57.6 percent from the field and 55.6 percent from 3-point range. The Gamecocks tied the game twice in the first half — 26-26 and 31-31 — but both times the Zags swung the game right back in their favor with 3-pointers from Jordan Matthews.

Friday also netted a loss, but Devin Booker kept them in it. He scored 70 points for the Suns, and helped Phoenix claw back from a 20-point first quarter deficit. Booker’s scoring eventually won over the Boston crowd, who began cheering for him as the Suns tried to keep the game going late, calling timeouts to give Booker a chance to score more points. He finished with the highest single-game total in franchise history, but lost to the Celtics 130-120.

Booker joined Wilt Chamberlain, David Robinson, David Thompson, Elgin Baylor and Kobe Bryant as players to reach 70 in one game.

Booker was 21 of 40 from the field, four of 11 from the 3-point range and was 24 of 26 shooting free throws. The former Kentucky star also had eight rebounds and six assists. He averaged 20.9 points per game before Friday.

The Gamecocks took down No. 2 seed Duke in a game that many pundits had all but given the Blue Devils prior the the meeting in Greenville. After all, the South Carolina program had just won its first NCAA tournament game in 44 years and had never visited the Sweet 16. They’d be happy with just one win against Marquette, right? Wrong.

In fact, USA Today was so confident that the Gamecocks would fold on Sunday that its sports account tweeted out a message after No. 1 seed Villanova fell to Wisconsin on Saturday, proclaiming: “Duke’s path to the Final Four looks ridiculously clear with Villanova’s loss.”

Let’s just say the fine folks at South Carolina bookmarked that tweet for future reference.

On Sunday night, in the moments following the Gamecocks’ historic victory, the school’s official Twitter account sent out this zinger to the news publication:

South Carolina will next play Baylor for a chance to advance to the Elite 8 for the first time in program history.

Baylor’s Jonathan Motley: Motley had a monster year for the Bears and is one of the best big men in the country.

Virginia’s London Perrantes: Perrantes was a key piece of last year’s Virginia team that went to the Elite Eight.

2017 NCAA Tournament West Region

Bracket:Time to make your picks in the West Region. #SelectionSunday pic.twitter.com/eQ1llCKWjX— March Madness TV (@MarchMadnessTV) March 12, 2017

The No. 1 seed in the region is Gonzaga, which completed a 32-1 regular season, followed by Arizona at No. 2, Florida State at No. 3 and West Virginia as the No. 4 seed. The region also features teams that could pull an upset like No. 12 Princeton or No. 14 Florida Gulf Coast.Schedule:

The Kansas Jayhawks lead the way as the No. 1 seed, followed by Louisville, Oregon and Purdue to round out the top four. Lower seeds like Rhode Island or Nevada could prove to be bracket busters if they come to play later this week.Schedule:

Kansas’ Frank Mason: The Big 12 player of the year, Mason has had one of the best seasons in all of college basketball.

Oregon’s Dillon Brooks: Also a player of the year, but in the Pac 12, Brooks will need to have a standout tournament to compensate for the serious injury suffered by teammate Chris Boucher.

Michigan State’s Miles Bridges: Bridges will have Kansas sweating if both teams advance to the round of 32. He’s one of the most-athletic players in the country.

Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan: The third major conference player of the year winner in the Midwest Region, Swanigan laid waste to the Big Ten as the Boilermakers took home the regular-season conference crown.

2017 NCAA Tournament South Region

Bracket:

Let's take a complete look at the South Region. #SelectionSunday pic.twitter.com/41ODmegBGQ— March Madness TV (@MarchMadnessTV) March 12, 2017

The Tar Heels are somewhat of a surprise pick for the No. 1 seed. North Carolina fell to Duke twice, including in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament, and the committee rewarded the Blue Devils with a No. 2 seed. Still, North Carolina is very deserving, having won the ACC regular-season title.

The region’s top four seeds are North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA and Butler.Schedule:

Kentucky’s Malik Monk: A star freshman among young stars who helped lead the Wildcats to the SEC regular season and tournament championships.

UCLA’s Lonzo Ball: Projected to be one of the top picks in the 2017 NBA Draft, the 6-foot-6 freshman averaged a very healthy 14.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.7 assists for the Bruins.

North Carolina’s Kennedy Meeks: Along with fellow upperclassmen Justin Jackson and Joel Berry II, Meeks led UNC to the regular-season ACC championship and could help take the Tar Heels back to the NCAA final.

In a video that is making the rounds on social media, a youth basketball coach is exhorting his team to take a shot. One of his players takes a pass, and instead of shooting, begins dribbling the wrong way toward the other basket.

The coach screams “noooo!” and then takes matters into his own hands. As the player prepares to make a layup, the coach swoops in for a savage block that would make any NBA player proud.

The video made its way to the internet, where it is drawing plenty of interest. There is no information about where the game took place and when it happened, but the player who suffered the tomahawk block and fell to the ground on the play is probably glad he is remaining anonymous for now.

But that was some great defense on the coach’s part. And a lesson learned by his player.

It was a night of long shots during Thursday night's NBA game in Portland, as a fan won a car with a left-handed halfcourt toss and Oklahoma City’s Taj Gibson made a 61-foot buzzer-beater just before halftime.

“Two incidents in particular – an expletive-laced remark Cousins made about Golden State after Sacramento’s overtime win over the Warriors on Feb. 6 and the astonishing 17th technical foul this season, and resulting one-game suspension, against New Orleans on Feb. 12 – have caused Ranadive to have serious concerns about tethering the franchise to Cousins long term.”